From Charles Burns, the creator of Black Hole, comes X’ED OUT, the first volume of an epic masterpiece of graphic fiction in brilliant color.

Doug is having a strange night. A weird buzzing noise on the other side of the wall has woken him up, and there, across the room, next to a huge hole torn out of the bricks, sits his beloved cat, Inky. Who died years ago. But who’s nonetheless slinking out through the hole, beckoning Doug to follow. What’s going on? To say any more would spoil the freaky, Burnsian fun, especially because X’ED OUT, unlike Black Hole, has not been previously serialized, and every unnervingly meticulous panel will be more tantalizing than the last. Drawing inspiration from such diverse influences as Hergé and William Burroughs, Charles Burns has given us a dazzling spectral fever-dream—and a comic-book masterpiece.

Charles Burns grew up in Seattle in the 1970s. His work rose to prominence in Art Spiegelman’s Raw magazine in the mid-1980s and took off from there, with an extraordinary range of comics and projects, from Iggy Pop album covers to the latest ad campaign for Altoids. In 1992, he designed the set for Mark Morris’s delightful restaging of The Nutcracker (renamed The Hard Nut) at BAM. He has illustrated covers for Time, The New Yorker, and The New York Times Magazine. He was also tapped as the official cover artist for The Believer magazine at its inception in 2003.

“A haunting first chapter in what promises to be a spellbinder…Masterful…it will leave you begging for the rest of the story.” –Publishers Weekly, starred review

“Like an apocalyptic hallucination…the visionary artistry of Burns exists beyond the bounds of time and constraints of conventional narrative.” –Kirkus starred review

“Long awaited first chapter in what promises to be a trippy, wildly experimental and typically disquieting epic.” –NPR.org

“Anything by comics master Burns is a big event and this is no exception.”—Comics Beat